 |
LNO Systems Analyst David Farris at the console of the Polycom Bridge. Photo: Jeanine McGann |
The LTER Network Office (LNO) had an extraordinarily busy year, caused in
part by the triennial All Scientists Meeting in Estes Park (see lead story)
and the myriad activities associated with the LTER planning project. The involvement
of LNO staff in the many emerging national research networks also kept us hopping.
I mention a few of the high points below.
Members of the Network Office staff participated in multiple aspects of the
LTER planning activity. I worked with the Science Task Force to plan and implement
various stages of the planning process. I also was a member of the Governance
Team that successfully devised revisions to the governance of the LTER Network.
As members of the LTER Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Core team, John Vande Castle
and James Brunt worked on the development of the LTER CI strategic plan. Mark
Servilla of the LNO also contributed to this document.
The LNO acquired $80,000 through a proposal to NSF which, combined with $50,000
already available, provided funds to facilitate the further development of
scientific ideas and collaborations arising from the ASM. Results from the
review of proposals are not yet available, but we anticipate funding approximately
20 proposals.
Staff of the LNO facilitated 66 meetings, working groups, and trainings involving
1503 individuals. These meetings focused on research, education, administration,
and planning for the LTER Network. In particular, the LNO supported the LTER
Planning Grant by providing logistical assistance for a wide variety of planning
grant meetings.
With changes in LTER governance and the need for more frequent interaction
between LTER scientists, the LNO, in collaboration with Office of Research
and Media Technology Services at the University of New Mexico, acquired, tested,
and deployed a Polycom MGC-50+ video-teleconferencing bridge that can host
multiple simultaneous meetings up to a maximum of 48 endpoint connections.
Interactions with outside experts brought in for the CI planning activities
resulted in the implementation of LTER data searches directly through the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center’s (ORNL DAAC) “Mercury”-based
search system. More information on this can be found in the ORNL Newsletter
at http://www-eosdis.ornl.gov/news/lter_mercury_news.html.
Major advances have been made this year in the design and development of the
Network Information System. A framework to support ecological synthesis has
been developed by the Network Information Systems (NIS) team building on successful
deployment of ecological metadata language (EML), the Metacat repository, and
the Metacat Harvester. This framework, code-named PASTA, is efficient because
it builds on existing investments and experiences, integrative because it adopts
standard interfaces and approaches, and innovative because it incorporates
data provenance and data quality into the design. Deployment and operation
of the Metadata/Data Catalog has resulted in the registration of nearly 25,000
metadata documents, over 5,500 of which are from the LTER Network. The Metacat
Harvester automatically harvests EML documents from 22 of 26 LTER Network sites.
We have submitted proposals this year to the NSF Biological Databases and Informatics
(BDI) program and OCI-SDCI to continue this work.
Finally, the LTER Executive Board has approved my request for a series of
short research sabbaticals. After nine years as Executive Director of the
LNO, these breaks will allow me to reconnect with LTER site research and
refresh my intellectual curiosity. The first of these breaks will take
place from December 1, 2006 until the end of February 2007. During my absence,
James Brunt will be acting Executive Director.
By Bob Waide, Executive Director, LNO
|
Email Story